Bruce Springsteen, Elections, and Songs of Hope
 |
| Jay-Z, Barrack Obama and Bruce Springsteen. Columbus, November 5, 2012. |
Aniello went on to talk about how Bruce tends to work, and how the process unfolded.
I keyed in on the date.
On November 4, 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected to his first term as President of the United States. The next evening, Bruce introduced Badlands by saying, "I don't know what you guys think about what happened last night but I think it's pretty frightening. You guys are young, there's gonna be a lot of people depending on you coming up so this is for you." The song performance, without the spoken introduction, was eventually released to the public on Live: 1975-85. It is a song of determination and hope in the face of troubled times:
I believe in the love that you gave me
I believe in the faith the can save me
I believe and I hope and I pray
The some day it may raise me
Above these badlands
On November 3, 1992, Bill Clinton was elected to his first term as President of the United States. This time, Springsteen's reaction was quite a bit different. He opened the 2nd set of a concert in Milwaukee by announcing, "All right, we got a new President of the United States, Bill Clinton"; later in the show he dedicated Glory Days to the president-elect.
 |
| A lighter tone in concert: Cleveland, April 17, 2012. |
In 1996, with the Democrat Clinton winning again, Springsteen again took a lighter tone after the election. Introducing Red Headed Woman, he would say something like, "I got some theories about cunnilingus. One is I believe that if Bob Dole during the election had not tried to push for that 15 percent tax cut but instead decided to use cunnilingus as a part of his platform... 'I'm Bob Dole, I believe in strong America and cunnilingus,' ,..generally that, that might have helped close the gender gap for him."
Springsteen did not become explicitly partisan in national elections, though, until his participation in the Vote For Change tour in 2004. He told Rolling Stone that when growing up, his mother had told him, "We're Democrats, 'cause Democrats are for the working people," but that he "wanted to remain an independent voice for the audience... Part of not being particularly partisan was just an effort to remain a very thoughtful voice in my fans' lives." He added, "I always liked being involved actively at a grassroots level, to act as a partisan for a set of ideals: civil rights, economic justice, a sane foreign policy, democracy. That was the position I felt comfortable coming from."
Springsteen explained further, in a Nightline interview with Ted Koppel, "You build up credibility, and you build it up for a reason, you know, over a long period of time, and hopefully we've built up that credibility with our audience. And I have an audience that's Democrats, Republicans and everything else, you know. And I think there comes a time when you feel, all right, I've built this up, and it's time to spend some of this." He then ticked off various things that he found wrong with the events of the prior 4 years: large tax cuts for the richest one percent, cuts in services to the needy, environmental rollbacks, and risking young people's lives in unnecessary wars.
Of course, Bruce's candidate, John Kerry, lost that election. Bruce wasn't on tour, so reacting from the stage wasn't an option.
A few months later, he told John Pareles of The New York Times, "I had a couple of weeks where it was like, ah, Patti had to peel me off the wall. And then it was onward and upward." That is, he threw himself in to his work. The first project he completed was Devils & Dust, which started with a soldier "just trying to survive" in Iraq, and ends with an immigrant dreaming of a better life, just before drowning in the Rio Grande.
Even before speaking to Mr. Pareles about that album, Springsteen also resumed work on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. The tone of the album was joyful, arguably even defiant. One of the last songs recorded for that album, Jacob's Ladder, recalls the biblical story of Jacob's dream of the ladder reaching to heaven. The lyrics are simple, combining action, will, strength, and brotherhood to attain a better place:
By 2012, though, Springsteen appeared less than completely thrilled with Obama's progress. We Take Care of Our Own seemed to take Democratic leadership -- and Obama -- to task in a manner he had previously reserved for Republicans. "The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone," he sang; considering he'd never accused Republican leadership of having "good intentions," that could only have been aimed at Obama's administration.
In an interview with Agance France-Presse, Bruce said that while he still supported Obama, he thought Obama was "more friendly to corporations than I thought he would be, (and) there's not as many middle-class or working-class voices heard in the administration as I thought there would be." When asked if he would campaign again, he initially backed off: "I prefer to stay on the sidelines. I genuinely believe an artist (is) supposed to be the canary in the coalmine, and you're better off with a certain distance from the seat of power."
Of course, Bruce did end up campaigning for Obama, even singing We Take Care of Our Own at several campaign events. But Springsteen also made clear why he joined: "That first debate really freaked me out," he said on stage. He was a reluctant warrior. Bruce was "proud to be standing with" Obama, but he didn't seem altogether happy to be there.
Though Bruce generally lauded the President in his remarks, he also said things like this: "I'm also troubled by thirty years of an increasing disparity in wealth between our best off citizens and everyday Americans. That is a disparity that threatens to divide us into two distinct and separate nations. We have to be better than that." The implication was that increasing disparity started with Reagan, and that Obama's opponent would not be "better than that," but I find it interesting to note that Springsteen didn't claim that Obama had been better than that, either. Echoing the words of he just said we need to be better than that, and left it there.
We Take Care of Our Own,
The national election was on November 6, 2012. Springsteen's man won. One month later, he threw himself in to a project to polish off some incomplete songs, just as he had 8 years earlier. The lead-off track, the title track for the new album, was written by Tim Scott McConnell. It includes these lines:
Springsteen did not become explicitly partisan in national elections, though, until his participation in the Vote For Change tour in 2004. He told Rolling Stone that when growing up, his mother had told him, "We're Democrats, 'cause Democrats are for the working people," but that he "wanted to remain an independent voice for the audience... Part of not being particularly partisan was just an effort to remain a very thoughtful voice in my fans' lives." He added, "I always liked being involved actively at a grassroots level, to act as a partisan for a set of ideals: civil rights, economic justice, a sane foreign policy, democracy. That was the position I felt comfortable coming from."
Springsteen explained further, in a Nightline interview with Ted Koppel, "You build up credibility, and you build it up for a reason, you know, over a long period of time, and hopefully we've built up that credibility with our audience. And I have an audience that's Democrats, Republicans and everything else, you know. And I think there comes a time when you feel, all right, I've built this up, and it's time to spend some of this." He then ticked off various things that he found wrong with the events of the prior 4 years: large tax cuts for the richest one percent, cuts in services to the needy, environmental rollbacks, and risking young people's lives in unnecessary wars.
 |
| Campaigning for Obama. November 5, 2012. |
Of course, Bruce's candidate, John Kerry, lost that election. Bruce wasn't on tour, so reacting from the stage wasn't an option.
A few months later, he told John Pareles of The New York Times, "I had a couple of weeks where it was like, ah, Patti had to peel me off the wall. And then it was onward and upward." That is, he threw himself in to his work. The first project he completed was Devils & Dust, which started with a soldier "just trying to survive" in Iraq, and ends with an immigrant dreaming of a better life, just before drowning in the Rio Grande.
Even before speaking to Mr. Pareles about that album, Springsteen also resumed work on We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. The tone of the album was joyful, arguably even defiant. One of the last songs recorded for that album, Jacob's Ladder, recalls the biblical story of Jacob's dream of the ladder reaching to heaven. The lyrics are simple, combining action, will, strength, and brotherhood to attain a better place:
We are climbing Jacob's ladder...
Every rung goes higher and higher...
Every new rung, just makes us stronger...
We are brothers and sisters, all
In 2008, Springsteen campaigned again, only this time, his candidate won. In his final campaign appearance before the election he debuted the song Working On a Dream, which would become the title track of his next album. The tone, even in the midst of a great recession, was optimistic.
By 2012, though, Springsteen appeared less than completely thrilled with Obama's progress. We Take Care of Our Own seemed to take Democratic leadership -- and Obama -- to task in a manner he had previously reserved for Republicans. "The road of good intentions has gone dry as a bone," he sang; considering he'd never accused Republican leadership of having "good intentions," that could only have been aimed at Obama's administration.
In an interview with Agance France-Presse, Bruce said that while he still supported Obama, he thought Obama was "more friendly to corporations than I thought he would be, (and) there's not as many middle-class or working-class voices heard in the administration as I thought there would be." When asked if he would campaign again, he initially backed off: "I prefer to stay on the sidelines. I genuinely believe an artist (is) supposed to be the canary in the coalmine, and you're better off with a certain distance from the seat of power."
 |
| Campaigning for Obama. Ypsilanti, October 6, 2008. |
Though Bruce generally lauded the President in his remarks, he also said things like this: "I'm also troubled by thirty years of an increasing disparity in wealth between our best off citizens and everyday Americans. That is a disparity that threatens to divide us into two distinct and separate nations. We have to be better than that." The implication was that increasing disparity started with Reagan, and that Obama's opponent would not be "better than that," but I find it interesting to note that Springsteen didn't claim that Obama had been better than that, either. Echoing the words of he just said we need to be better than that, and left it there.
We Take Care of Our Own,
The national election was on November 6, 2012. Springsteen's man won. One month later, he threw himself in to a project to polish off some incomplete songs, just as he had 8 years earlier. The lead-off track, the title track for the new album, was written by Tim Scott McConnell. It includes these lines:
I wanna have a wife, I wanna have some kids
I wanna look in their eyes and know they'll stand a chance
In my initial reaction to this latest release, I struggled to find an "arc"for it.
To some extent, that is still true. But it seems not all that different than what he told John Pareles about his reaction to 2004. A couple weeks, then "onward and upward." From defiant high hopes, to a plea to keep on dreaming, together.
all photographs (except album cover): Matthew Orel
all photographs (except album cover): Matthew Orel
Comments